My mom died three weeks ago, I just claimed her grave on findagrave. What do I do next? I searched for her and there she was, I couldn’t help but claim it. Now what?

Edit: I haven’t claimed it yet. I just created a profile. Now I can claim and manage it. Should I? I don’t know what I’m doing.

I claimed it and it’s showing under my profile as managed.

I just got this message from someone wanting me to take down a headstone photo I took. This person wasn't specific and only gave me a first name but I looked through the 40 ish photos they have uploaded and figured out who she's talking about.

The decedent in question died a couple of years ago and has only 3 photos on her memorial, so there is plenty of room to add more person photos if the messenger wishes.

I am not the manager of the memorial. I simply mowed rows in this cemetery last summer to get the photographed % up. I don't see any reason to take my photo down because that's the point of the website and another graver will eventually come along and add one anyway. This person may also have other family members that are happy to have photos of her headstone.

I'm thinking of telling this person to contact the memorial manager and have them arrange the photos so the person photo shows up first. Or have it transferred to her since she's an in-law.

Sorry this was long but I've never had a request like this before and I'm a little baffled. Am I being rude by not wanting to take down my perfectly good grave photo from the grave photo website?

This week I've been updating some poor photographs taken by others and thought, "I should teach people the basics of photography." I did a quick web search for some articles to reference and found a lot of click-bait surrounding a few good sources. At that point I decided I'd just throw out a few hints - add your own recommendations.

First, a couple of thoughts. You are taking a picture of a stone. It doesn't move, there are no issues with depth of field, and your choice of framing is pretty limited. Also, you have a smart camera to help you - I'm using a 20-year old digital camera, but when I turn the flash on, the camera is smart enough to realize I want to use fill-flash mode.

The general recommendation is that you take at least three photographs of a grave. One, pull back until you can get the entirety of the memorial in the photo. If the stone is a 30-foot tall plinth, you are going to move way, way back. Second, take a photo of the front of the stone. Then, the back. Take photos of all sides with markings and skip the blank sides. Take additional photos of markings as close-ups if it helps to make them out.

More photos are better than fewer. You can always pick and choose later.

When you are doing close-ups of markings, the camera flash can help where the stone is too dark or stippled with bright bits and shadowed bits.

Many people say the photos should be taken at the level of the stone, straight-on to the stone, the stone as flat to the plane of the photo as possible. And when done well, these photos are striking. But if the stone is highly reflective your image could be reflected in the stone and visible in the photo. If the carving is shallow, straight-on offers little contrast and makes the marks illegible. I prefer having the camera slightly above the stone where you can also photograph a bit of the background beyond the stone. Move to the side if you are shooting directly into the sun, to keep your reflection from being in the shot, or to increase the legibility of the markings.

If it's a bright day the stone may be too dark to see well. You can manually set the exposure, you can use AUTO on your camera, focus on the stone and have your camera set exposure, then zoom out, keeping those settings, and take the photo, or - as I do - just take the shot in AUTO and adjust the exposure on my computer before uploading it.

A photo editing program with the basics of Crop, Rotate, and Adjust Exposure / Contrast is a great help.

Please add your suggestions.

Has anyone else had an issue when uploading pictures through the app that none of them are adding GPS? It’s been happening to me for about a week or so now and I’ve never had this issue before, I had signal at the locations (it’s three different cemeteries this has happened with) and was able to add gps to those with memorials already that hadn’t been gps tagged while at the locations, but I’m having to manually pin the GPS on every single grave now where I’ve uploaded a picture - I have over 300 from today I need to upload and it’s a rather onerous task especially if I’m not 100% sure on exact location :( has anyone else been experiencing this or even better found a way for it to go back to adding the gps? Thanks

Ugh.

Duplicate submitted 5/29 (93 days ago) still pending.

Duplicate submitted 6/2 (89 days ago) still pending ... it's same name and cemetery.

Duplicate submitted 6/5 (86 days ago) still pending ... it's same name and cemetery.

Nine duplicates submitted 6/7 (84 days ago) still pending.

That's 12 weeks or more they're behind ... almost three months.

Hello , I’m wondering if anyone that uses an Android phone have any issues with very slow upload speeds when it comes to adding GPS locations ? This is my friends phone that I’ve been trying to help her fix . 3 months ago it worked fast and fine . I use an iPhone and uploads fast . Her phone is brand new . Has anyone experienced this and if so have you been able to correct it somehow. Help or suggestions are appreciated. Thank you

"An honest upright but unhappy man"

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120306641/leonard-warren-alger

EDIT TO ADD BACKGROUND: I have tried for two weeks to get Hayden Panettiere's memorial as famous but Alex from findagrave refuses to make it famous. The person managing her memorial claimed to be her first-cousin so nobody else can claim it. He also will not update her bio to be compliant with FG's very strict famous bio standards as he denied one that was written by someone that would have worked. If the bio that I wrote below isn't good enough for FG, maybe someone here can give suggestions on how to fix it?

ORIGINAL POST:

Well, I did it. I really didn’t want to do it because it was going to take up a lot of time but it bothers me that the manager of the memorial will not fix Hayden’s bio so she can be marked as famous.

Let’s see if Alex from FG approves it. If not, then IDK — I tried, way more than I ever planned. Reddit doesn’t allow bullet points but I had them in my submission, which I attached as photos here.

memorial found here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/305426026/hayden-lesley-panettiere

≠===================================================================

Hayden Panettiere was an American actress, singer and activist born in Palisades, an unincorporated hamlet in the town of Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States of America.

Her surname, Panettiere (pronounced “pan-a-teery”), is of Italian origin, means “baker” and was passed down from her father, who was adopted by his stepfather. She was of Italian, German and English heritage. She spent extended periods with her maternal grandparents in Indiana during her childhood.

Hayden had a daughter with former professional boxer, Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

She began her career at only 8 months of age when she was signed with Wilhelmina Models by her mother. Her first television commercial was when she was 11 months of age. By the time she transitioned to a young daytime soap opera actress at 5 years of age, she had appeared in at least 50 commercials.

Gained international recognition in her role as Claire Bennet, a cheerleader with regenerative powers, in the NBC science-fiction superhero series Heroes. The series had global popularity and she earned critical acclaim winning the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2007, plus three additional nominations (2008, 2009, 2010).

Starred as Juliette Barnes in the country musical drama series Nashville, wherein she recorded numerous songs for the series and its soundtracks. Her performance earned her two Golden Globe nominations (2013, 2014) for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television.

Her final film role was in the American psychological thriller Sleepwalker (2026), in which she also served as executive producer. 

She published her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning” in May 2026. The book reveals deeply personal moments from her life and career (including child stardom, addiction and recovery, domestic violence, mental health, postpartum depression, family dynamics and grief, her bisexuality, her former relationships, giving full custody to her daughter’s father, and working in the Hollywood industry).

Throughout her life she supported social causes such as marine conservation, animal welfare, political activism, humanitarian aid and mental health advocacy. In 2007, she supported Ronald McDonald charities. She became a teen ambassador for Candie’s Foundation in 2008. The Humane Society of the United States awarded her the Humane Society Wyler Award (2008). Following the war in Ukraine, she founded Hoplon International (2022) and raised millions of dollars for medical equipment and protective gear, which supported Ukrainian citizens and frontline defenders for their country. 

Hayden was passionate about protecting whales and dolphins. She was a vocal advocate about their welfare for nearly twenty years. In 2007, she participated in the Taiji Dolphin Protest against the slaughter of dolphins. She delivered protest letters in 2008 to the Japanese, Icelandic, and Norwegian embassies in Washington, D.C. Beginning in 2007, she was an International Ambassador and Spokesperson for the Whaleman Foundation and helped to lead their “Save the Whales Again!” campaign. Her final plea for saving the whales and dolphins was a PETA campaign, shot two weeks before her death, which protested the captivity of marine mammals at parks with the slogan “Could you Live in a Bathtub?” PETA released the campaign two days after her passing to honor her lifelong dedication to animal rights and fierce advocacy for marine animals.

Panettiere died at the age of 36 on August 16, 2026, in Greenville, South Carolina, United States of America. She is predeceased by her brother, Jansen Panettiere (memorial ID 24967404), and survived by her daughter, father and estranged mother.

Major Television credits included:
One Life to Live (Sarah Roberts, 1994-1997)
Guiding Light (Lizzie Spaulding, 1996-2000)
Heroes (Claire Bennet, 2006-2010)
H.M.S. White Coat (as an executive producer, 2010)
Nashville (Juliette Barnes, 2012-2018)
Heroes Reborn (Claire Bennet, 2015-2016)

Notable Guest Roles included:
Law and Order: SVU (Ashley Austin Black, S2-ep11; Angela Agnelli, S6-ep17)
Ally McBeal (2002, Maddie Harrington)
Malcolm in the Middle (Jessica, 2003-2005)

TV Movies included:
Normal (2003, Patty Ann Applewood)
Tiger Cruise (Maddie Dolan, 2004)

Film credits included:
Remember the Titans (Sheryl Yoast, 2000)
Joe Somebody (Natalie Scheffer, 2001)
The Affair of the Necklace (young Jeanne, 2001)
Raising Helen (Audrey Daivs, 2004)
Ice Princess (Gen Harwood, 2005)
Racing Stripes (Channing Walsh, 2005)
Bring It On: All or Nothing (Britney Allen 2006)
The Architect (Christina Waters, 2006)
Fireflies in the Garden (young Jane, 2008)
The Cove (documentary: as herself from Whaleman Foundation archival footage, 2009)
I Love You, Beth Cooper (Beth Cooper, 2009)
The Forger (Amber Felter, 2011)
Scream IV (Kirby Reed, 2011)
Custody (Ally Fisher, 2016)
Scream / Scream V (Kirby Reed as still picture and voice only, 2022)
Scream VI (Kirby Reed, 2023)
Amber Alert (Jaq, 2024)
A Breed Apart (Hayden Hearst, 2025)
Sleepwalker (Sarah Pangborn, 2026)

Voice credits for animated films/tv shows included:
A Bug's Life (Dot, 1998)
Dinosaur (Suri, 2000)
Filmore! (Yumi, 2002)
Robert Chicken (Cheetara, 2005)
American Dad (Ashley, 2005)
Scooby Doo! And the Goblin King (Princess Willow, 2008)
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (Red Pucket aka Little Red Riding Hood, 2011)

Performance captures and voices for animated video games, included:
A Bug's Life (Dot, 1998)
The Mark of Kri (Tati, 2002)
The Kingdom Hearts series (Kairi and Xion, 2002-2017)
Until Dawn (Sam Giddings, 2015)

Sources for Biography: Animal Welfare Institute; Behind the Voice Actors; IMDB; People Magazine, PETA; “This Is Me: A Reckoning” (ISBN-13: 9781538773420); Whaleman Foundation; and a few details by Wikipedia.

Edit: An attempt to fix formatting

Is there a way to upload photos to the recently deceased without being a close family member?

Several years ago, I suggested edits to a distant relative's FindAGrave memorial after I noticed that it confused details and relationships with those of another woman. Admittedly, the two were born in the same decade, shared the same first name, and lived part of their lives in the same US State, where they married around the same time to husbands with a common surname. However, the two women were born in different states, had maiden names strongly associated with different European countries, had husbands with different first names, died more than 20 years apart in separate US states, and were buried in separate cemeteries near their respective places of death.

I spent a few hours correcting the linked relationships on FindAGrave and submitting bios to carefully differentiate the two women, as well as their parents, husbands, and combined 14 children. I also carefully documented the corresponding profiles on FamilySearch. However, the unsourced Ancestry. com public member tree "hive mind" had already firmly decided that the two women were the same person, which may explain why some of the same errors have intermittently reemerged in the FindAGrave memorials: children linked to the wrong mother, both women linked to both husbands, etc.

At some point since I last checked, one of the women's FindAGrave memorials was deleted through a merger with the other's, effectively undoing all of my previous efforts and recombining the two families. There's no way to see who suggested this merge (or any of the previous changes) so that I can contact them to keep this from happening again. I wish there were a way to subscribe to changes or at least get notifications of pending merges.

I much prefer FamilySearch's model with 1) a change log tracking who did what and when, and 2) the ability to "follow" specific profiles for notifications about those changes. Although FamilySearch is often criticized because "anyone can make changes," the same is effectively true of FindAGrave, because most managers either rubberstamp edits or take no action, leading to default approval after three weeks. At least on FamilySearch, I don't have to manually navigate to profiles to check for new errors and then wait three weeks after submitting corrections for them to actually take effect.

That waiting period is especially frustrating when someone introduces errors that make a relationship suggestion invalid (children born after a parent's supposed death or marriages occurring after a spouse's supposed death), because it leads to two successive three-week waits. First, you have to wait three weeks for the corrected dates to be approved. Then, you have to remember that there are still relationships that need to be corrected. Finally, you have to wait another three weeks for that second round of changes to take effect.

Has anyone else noticed, that now some subject lines of Edits Accepted emails, show dates as (Unknown - Unknown), when they aren't? Obviously, a work in progress.

As an aside, in the past, "Unknown" used to be "unknown". Most curious.

My dad passed away earlier this month. He was cremated and there was no service. A short obituary was posted on the funeral home website. About a week after he died, I went to create a memorial page for him on Find a Grave. I already manage the memorial for my grandparents' plot where my dad's ashes will likely be interred soon, so I wanted to link his page to the plot.

But when I tried to create the page, it said there was already a page created for him. It then prompted me to accept management, so I did, and I linked it to my grandparents' memorial.

I've been curious how the page was already created for him, or who may have done it. Does the site just automatically scrape recent obituaries from the internet and create pages for the recently deceased? Or did someone go in and manually create a page for him? Is this a thing people do, going through recent obituaries and add people in? I was so surprised to see a page already created for him so I just clicked accept and didn't try to see if it said anywhere who created the page.

I used to drive this cemetery everyday while the baby slept, this particular grave has been on my mind for a long time. I've tried finding information on him but haven't had any luck, so now I bring it to you wonderful people. Can you help me learn his story?

Does anyone else absolutely refuse to upload grave photos if they appear as a reflection? Some of the headstones and niche markers are SO reflective! I've seen photos on FG that clearly show the photographer.

I know, it's just superstition but I'm not prepared to have my own image on a photo of someone else's grave.

People often mention “mowing rows” and I understand the general concept, but what are the specifics of your workflow. Do you walk along rows taking pictures of every single headstone and then, at home, go through each one on FG to see if it’s already there or not? Or do you take a video instead of still shots? Is there software to help speed up the process? Just looking to learn from your experience.

I found I had accidentally duplicated a memorial - What I thought was an 'O' was really a 'Q'. There was a pile of information in each memorial, and I didn't feel like retyping it all, so I reported it as a duplicate.

Then I returned to the screen I had discovered the duplicate on, and refreshed.

The merge had already taken place. 30-seconds, tops.

Tim Curry's FindAGrave has been created already. It's marked as a celeb grave.

Burial details are currently unknown, which is no surprise as he died today.

I'm shocked how quickly these are going up lately.

Examples:

• Won't add full name or the other surnames to a woman's memorial who was married multiple times.
  Grave marker: Mary A. P-name.
  Memorial: Mary A. G-name S-name.
  Bio: Mary Ann (g-name) P-name S-name.

• Add the full inscription from the grave marker. The latest person had re-written the inscription. Specifically, they took the original "BSM PH" and made it "Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart" in the Inscription field. That would be fine in another field, but not in the Inscription field.

• Declined a correction in the Bio field: "US Arm" should be "US Army." Apparently she does not know how to use the symbols showing the differences in submitted text and original text.

• Declined a transcription, then added it in later.

Peter Winchester - Find a Grave Memorial

Memorial ID 201448864

I have tried to faithfully transcribe the whole of the inscription - both English and Latin - but reckon I've failed miserably at the Latin bit. Can anyone help please?

I knew she'd probably end up on FG moments after her death. But this profile appears to be legit. It's marked as famous, which means FG manages it. I feared somebody would create a junk profile like with what happened to Hayden Panettiere last week.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/306001973/dolly-parton